The Big Boss (1972)

Touches You

A Masterpiece!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

"The Big Boss" was the first starring role for Bruce Lee after years of struggling to promote his own kind of Martial Arts onto the medium of cinema. Admittedly, the film is rather amateurish in the way it was made. Poor dubbing and poor sound in general really hamper the film. In addition, the lack of direction from Lo Wei is clearly in evidence. He and Bruce Lee weren't destined to get along and from the start, the atmosphere between them was fraught with tension. To be fair to Lee, Wei hardly took an interest in his own movie and didn't give much instruction to his actors. In spite of all these problems, "The Big Boss" is remembered for one thing: Bruce Lee. Even whilst not engaged in fight scenes, he still oozes charisma and not all stars in Martial Arts movies have that ability. When Lee springs into action, you are rooted to your seat. The speed of his hands in particular is a sight to behold. His kind of Martial Arts on film was a completely different kind to Asian audiences back in 1971 when the film came out. It is true that some of the violence is occasionally a bit comic strip but Lee isn't to blame for this as he wasn't the fight choreographer for the movie. The story is about as wafer thin as it gets but it serves its purpose. The climatic fight scene between Bruce and the chief villain is explicit but like poetry in motion. The blending of the different styles of Kung Fu is seamless. The movie broke box office records when released and Bruce Lee had finally arrived. Future Hong Kong stars like Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Jet Li would all be influenced to a certain extent.

Bruce Lee lights up the screen in his initial martial arts actioner. He plays Cheng-Chao An, a young man who joins up with various cousins to work in an ice factory. He's promised his uncle (Chia-Chen Tu) that he will avoid fighting and violence, but finds that this will be nigh on impossible when confronted with the sleazy machinations of the guys in charge of the factory. Soon, family and friends go missing, and our hero will be on a mission to find out what's going on...as well as get some revenge.Written and directed by Wei Lo, "Fists of Fury" a.k.a. "The Big Boss" is kind of clunky, at least when you compare it to the more accomplished Lee vehicles from this period. It's also very comedic and silly most of the time. The biggest indication of this occurs late in the film when a bad guy is knocked through a wall. (However, the final quarter hour switches the tone dramatically, with some grim developments that will help further spur Bruce to vengeance.) There is plenty of entertaining action to go around, and this is when the film is at its most amusing, with lots of grunting and impact sounds on the soundtrack. You'll notice, too, that if you watch the 101 minute long uncut version, things get pretty violent and gory (albeit with a lot of that bright red movie blood that looks more like paint). The widescreen photography is good, and the music by Fu-Ling Wang is downright funky and a hoot.There are some very gorgeous women in the cast: Maria Yi, Marilyn Bautista, and Nora Miao, the latter a recurring co-star for Bruce during this time. Bautista even bares her breasts for the occasion. Among the supporting cast are James Tien (who was originally set to star) as inquisitive cousin Hsiu Chien and the wonderfully grandiose Ying-Chieh Han as the ultimate villain of the piece.This definitely has its value as an introduction to the charms and physical prowess of Lee as an action star, and may whet ones' appetite for more of his classics.Seven out of 10.

Saw this in a theatre in 1971 and just revisited it 45 years later.Conclusion: As a film, it suffers badly from the massive improvements in choreography, skill, and staging that MA films have enjoyed in the interim. What seemed sort of "OK" in a dark theatre in 1971 becomes, after several decades, almost a slow dance of awkward fighting moves, with off-sync sound effects and blows that never seem to connect with anything.In this instance it is not fair to judge the old by the new ... so, no rating.And then there is the topic of Mr. Lee.History tells us that Bruce Lee exploded into Asian cinema on this film and anyone can see why. IT IS AS IF HE IS OPERATING AT A FAST CAMERA SPEED AND THE REST OF THE CAST AT A SLOW CAMERA FEED. Of course, the speed of the camera is the same throughout, it is the speed of the actors that differed.The cast were the usual bunch that made many dozens of these films in a year. They looked slow and awkward because they actually were slow and awkward.Mr. Lee on the other hand lived (and ultimately died) for his craft. His whole life was MA and even today the debate continues as where he would have ranked against the best fighters of all time. At the top is my guess.In essence, this is almost an audition tape for Mr. Lee and not much else. But it is a piece of history and deserves great respect.

(For purposes of personal continuity and preference, 1971's "The Big Boss" will from here on out be referred to as "Fists of Fury.")1971's "Fists of Fury" (also known by its original title "The Big Boss") is a bit of a hit-and-miss effort. But first things first, from a historical perspective, "Fists of Fury" has the distinction of being deceased martial arts legend Bruce Lee's first starring role in a film - and was also his first hit film - after failing to obtain any work in Hollywood because of negative racial stereotypes regarding Asians.As I already stated, the film is a bit of a hit-and-miss. I had previously seen Lee's greatest film - and the greatest martial arts movie ever, period - "Enter the Dragon" (1973) first, and "Fists of Fury" was the first of Lee's Hong Kong efforts that I saw not long afterward, and was disappointed. Then I saw "Return of the Dragon" (1972) (which I enjoyed a little bit more than this film) and then I finally saw "The Chinese Connection" (1972) (which I feel is Lee's greatest effort from China).In this film, Lee plays Cheng Chao-an, a young man from mainland China who has arrived in Thailand to work with relatives at an ice factory. Cheng has taken an oath of non-violence, his senior-aged mother having extracted a sacred promise from him to never fight again. Thus, "Fists of Fury" is a slow burn of escalating violence and tension, so people will be sitting on pins + needles waiting for Lee to get into action as Cheng and his cousins investigate the mysterious disappearances of other relatives and fellow co-workers.And when it does finally come time for Bruce Lee-styled Jeet Kune Do action, Cheng lets his fists and feet - his Fists of Fury, if you will - do the talking after he runs afoul of the corrupt owner of the ice factory, the so-called "Big Boss"/Hsiao Mi (Ying-Chieh Han), and his legion of disposable henchmen. (It's also worth noting at this point that "Fists of Fury" may very well be the bloodiest and most graphically violent of all the films Lee made while still in Asia - it reportedly had to be cut several times for its excessively bloody violence.)While I make it a point to mention that Bruce Lee doesn't finally get to see some real action until the film's climatic final 20 minutes, "Fists of Fury" is not a complete drag until then. There are plenty of other fisticuffs until then, including a big brawl at the ice factory involving Cheng's cousins and fellow co-workers against Mi's henchmen. Writer and director Lo Wei (who would later direct Lee's subsequent effort "The Chinese Connection") has uneven direction, but is quite skilled in handling the various fighting sequences. Lo Wei also injects a bit of meaningful morality into the story, involving the consequences of violence, revenge, and taking the law into your own hands - a point made crystal-clear by this film's explosive, well-known ending.In Bruce Lee's all-too-brief life and career, "Fists of Fury," while it was in fact his first hit film, is also his least accomplished effort as a lead actor and the most disappointing of his Hong Kong films.That's why I give it a "6."6/10